T-Mobile Quietly Changes JUMP! On Demand to Allow Device Changes Every 30 Days

T-Mobile has recently rolled out changes to JUMP! On Demand (JOD), making it much more intriguing for folks who always want to have the latest and greatest available.

Before these changes, anyone a part of JOD could upgrade their phone up to 3 times in a year. Now, anyone on JOD can upgrade up to once every 30 days. Essentially, you can be just like an Android blogger, switching phones all of the time, should you be interested.

If you are a T-Mobile customer, but not enrolled in JOD, the way it works is rather simple. Essentially, each phone you have is just a lease, always owned by T-Mobile, unless you decide to purchase the device. After signing an 18-month agreement, the pricing structure is based on your credit, the device you choose, and the plan you opt for. Each is an important factor in determining your payment.

Currently, there isn’t a formal list of devices that are eligible for JOD, as the list continues to change. However, if you’re eyeing a new phone, such as the Moto Z2 Force, Galaxy S8, or LG G6, you’ll find it on there. With a lot of great Android devices on the horizon, now may be a good time to look into JOD.

Are you a JUMP! On Demand customer? What are your thoughts on this change? If you’re not on JOD, but this change makes it sound really cool to try out, dial 611 on your T-Mobile device and ask the customer service representative to start the enrollment process.

Among other information was this: “In August of 2018, a device down payment may be required for JUMP! On Demand and customers upgrading in supported channels (retail, telesales) will be charged the upgrade support charge at upgrade.
Depending on the device, a SIM Starter Kit may be required (Retail Price: $25)”

The upgrade fee is $20 per phone. So next year they will be charging $20 per phone plus a down payment. If you change phones often that can add up quickly!

Cory S

After the Note 7 they started requiring down payments for flagship models, which IMO kills this plan.

Daniel Lujan

Yeesh I just want this plan with a Pixel please!

Zach P30

quick question: I have JOD but when they had a free line promotion a few months ago, they couldn’t make that extra line JOD because they “didn’t offer it anymore”. previously they made you pay of the EIP to make it a JOD line – do you still have to do that?

Jeremy Turnley

Yes, you still need to pay off any EIP before you swap.

JOD actually never went away, it was just not advertised. You just had to find a rep who would add it, which given the extra work needed could be difficult. A lot of reps would just say its not available just to get you off the phone, or weren’t aware they could still apply it.

Daenerys

They didn’t offer it because T-Mobile made it uncommissionable.

Jeremy Turnley

That explains a LOT.

Zach P30

freaking snakes ughhhhh

phxpaul

I have JOD and I’m done. As soon as this latest lease is paid down, I’m going back to the purchase/finance methods. I’ve jumped from 6sPlus to HTC10 to 7plus. I was better off paying off then later selling

Zach P30

you can still pay off the phone when the lease is finished so you can see it

Jeremy Turnley

If you are an Apple user, it’s definitely NOT a good deal, with them only putting out one phone a year and offering massive trade-in offers when the new one come out. JOD is really only good for obsessive Android users.

FYI, you can convert your lease into a POIP (the same thing as an EIP) at any time. The instructions are at the JOD page linked at the bottom of the article). You pay taxes, then the remaining balance is divided by 9 for your payments. If you can sell your phone for that much, you are golden.

Cory S

Theoretically, you can JOD to a entry level cheap phone, and then pay that off.

MindFog2287

I got off the treadmill by turning in my high-end Samsung, getting a cheap Tmo phone on JoD, then returned it within 15 days since it was a new lease and just paid restocking IIRC. The rep at the store didn’t like that, but when I contacted Tmo support, they authorized it.

Cory S

That’s brilliant..

MindFog2287

I can’t take credit, I saw it in another thread. Trying to remember if it was restocking, or if I had to pay half the payments (might have been $60 or something). Was worth it to get off the monthly payments. 🙂

Actually, I think it was just the restocking. Don’t remember why I had to pay that in the 15 day window. Maybe it’s policy. I got the cheap phone just in case I had to keep paying or couldn’t do the 15 day return.

Drewzilla

Wow. Does this really work? That’s a great idea.

MindFog2287

Worked for me!

JLV90

They have also changed the no down payment for base models on a lot of phones

Rick_Diesel

can say from experience this has been able to be done for at least the last year or so, but just now public. As a current JoD customer, I have easily used 6-7 phones just this year

hawkstwelve

It completely depends on the rep/store. I haven’t been so lucky. I got denied a fourth phone when trying to upgrade within the same 12 month period.

Long story short: once you find a rep that will do it, always go back to them.

Rick_Diesel

yeah, i go to a mix of 4 stores around my house/work. I have easily done 10+ upgrades in the last year. Guess I am one of the luck ones

cucabueno

I’m trying to understand this plan a bit better… So each time you switch phones, you just swap on start a new monthly payment? Is the remaining EIP forgiven when trading in your phone?

Zach P30

Jump on demand is not an EIP, it’s a lease agreement. every time you trade in a phone, you stop paying the lease for the old one and start a new lease for the new device. i personally like the plan because it lets me upgrade yearly (well at least i upgrade yearly) without having to pay the $12 monthly fee for regular Jump (which IS an EIP)

Galaxy_Fan

Have you had a problem with them trying to charge you the full month amount for two JOD phones in the same month? I had the S7 and then traded it in for the S8. I preordered the S8 so the phones overlapped a few days but they wanted me to pay full amount for both phones in that one month ($64 total). Do they usually get it right if you do the JOD in the store?

Rick_Diesel

They usually get it right, but they always add insurance which is annoying. I’ve never had to pay for 2 phones though.

Galaxy_Fan

Thanks for letting me know! That was my first JOD. An hour on the phone with customer service got me nowhere. I finally got it straightened out on twitter with T-force bit it was a pain. I am jumping for the second time soon and wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Jeremy Turnley

One other important change on the JOD page (that actually was added around the time the GS8 came out, but didn’t get much coverage):

The last sentence allows them to get around the zero down clause of JOD any time they want.

Zach P30

can you post the link please?

Jeremy Turnley

It’s at the bottom of the article above.

Zach P30

thanks

Croq

That last sentence was added to the page after T-Mo caved and offered the Note 7 with no down payment, after initially requiring a down payment, due to pressure from customers and a ton of WTF tweets to T-Mo Help and phone calls to customer service too. Right about the same time they announced that they would make the Note 7 available to customers with no down payment, they added that “clarification” (after removing the page all-together at first, IIRC).

hawkstwelve

Per usual from past policy changes, there once again seems to be confusion amongst TMO reps.

T-Force on Twitter is saying this new 1 per 30 days is only for lower end phones – not iPhones, or Galaxys, or anything like that.
TMO on Facebook is saying you can upgrade every 30 days but there is still a cap of three times per year and the support page is just clarifying that.

Neither of their responses correspond with the updated support page as it doesn’t mention this only applies to lower end phones nor the 3/year limitation.

Jeremy Turnley

Gotta love T-Mo’s communication with their reps. Between the reps who don’t read what they are supposed to, managers who tell their people the wrong thing, and communications that are unclear to begin with, it’s not shocking to see this happen every time.

Guest

Like Trump’s whitehouse

Francisco Peña

Or Clinton’s excuses…

Move on from Trump bashing.. has nothing to do with Jump On Demand.

Kimberlydlopez

Edu61s

Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family! !pa91d:
On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
!pa91d:
➽➽
➽➽;➽➽ http://GoogleFinancialJobsCash91OfficeTube/GetPay$97/Hour… ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★:::::!pa91l..,…

Ritapheadley

Gallery121s

Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family! !pa161d:
On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
!pa161d:
➽➽
➽➽;➽➽ http://GoogleFinancialJobsCash161OfficeCode/GetPay$97/Hour… ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★:::::!pa161l..,.

Mike

Probably the only thing I truly want from T-Mobile on other carriers. Once a year is enough for me but I’d definitely switch more if I could.

Suicide_Note

Same here. I’d have a blast using the S8 one month, the Note 8, the next, a G6 the month after that, and on and on.

Jeremy Turnley

The real bonus is that you can take advantage of the bonus offers from each phone. During the Note 7 fiasco, I got three separate purchase bonuses (a Gear Fit 2, Gear VR v2, and 256 GB SSD card) from the three phones I moved across.

Zach P30

true, just don’t forget many T-Mobile offers are for EIP only. things like free Samsung VR’s usually always apply to everyone, but BOGO phones, half-priced phones, etc., are for EIP only

Francisco Peña

Depends.. I’ve gotten the G5 and G6 (with Google Home) when it was supposed to be EIP, yet on JoD I still got it.

Francisco Peña

only issue is a bunch of cases lying around. The phones have to be in good working condition with no screen issues.

Galaxy_Fan

I purchased my S7 Spigen Case from Amazon for $15 and turned around and sold it on E-bay for $10 after I traded in the phone.

Ben

Do you have to pay off a certain amount of the phone before you can swap? It seems like that would get very expensive very quickly.

Galaxy_Fan

With JOD you don’t have to have a specific amount of the phone paid off. I jumped from the S7 to the S8 after only one payment on the S7 – my old phone, not on JOD, died right before the s8 came out and I needed a new phone right away. It was the old Jump! plus plans that required half of the phone to be paid off.

You’d have to pay down payments on many of those high end phones though.

Galaxy_Fan

You are correct about the down payment. That kept me from getting the S8+ and I settled for the S8. Usually there is not a down payment for the “base model”. There was no down payment with the S8 but a down payment was needed for the S8+. If I remember correct it was about $120. The down payment is what kept me from getting the S8+. I was not going to pay $120 down for a phone I was planning on keeping for only a few months. That significantly increases the cost if you are jumping very often – another $30 per month if I keep it for 4 months. I am in month 4 and I am already getting ready to JOD for my next phone.

Murphy

Great news! 🙌

SA_NYC

Yeah, good stuff. I’m a big T-Mo and JOD fan.

JSo

“Get the phone you want, when you want it”

But will the Pixel be on your carrier this year, T-Mobile? If so, I’ll “Jump” on a phone right now and wait for it.

Jeremy Turnley

Rumor is that VZW has a 3-year exclusive, but nobody has been able to substantiate it. I guess we will see.

JSo

I really hope that’s just a rumor.

SlyKrysis

That’s false, as Project Fi members will have the Pixel 2’s available to them upon release.

When you get a phone through them, you are just buying it from Google’s play store. Project Fi does not finance or sell the devices themselves, you are just like any other person buying an unlocked phone direct from Google.

The advantage of getting a phone from your carrier is, of course, you can take advantage of whatever offers that carrier has available (like JOD).

SlyKrysis

What? Yes you can finance it, it’s subsidized just like anywhere else. I can get a Pixel XL for an extra $27 added to my monthly bill.

Jeremy Turnley

Heh, that’s not a subsidy. From Google’s store page:

“$569.00 or $23.71/month for 24 months with Google Store Financing*”

Jeremy Turnley

Fi *is* Google. Financing through one is the same as the other.

Cory S

No, Fi and the play store are separate, and have separate inventories. Also, if you buy it through Fi and then later end your service, the full amount is due.

TylerCameron

Google offers 0% financing. Same as the carriers. No jumping tho, sadly. And I’m sure almost anyone can take advantage. I was approved and I’ve only been building credit for a year.

JSo

Yeah, if it’s not in T-Mobile, I will go that route. It would be nice to know ahead of time though. If I knew, I would get something like the Galaxy S8 or LG G6 to hold me over until then. Can’t jump on that without knowing though.